Safety impact switch to open electrical circuit



Oct. 19, 1965 J KONDERLA 3,213,226

SAFETY IMPACT SWITCH TO OPEN ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT Filed Dec. 9, 1963 BY W7 9 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,213,226 SAFETY IMPACT SWITCH TOOPEN ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT Joseph R. Konderla, Rte. 3, R0. Box 287,Seagoville, Tex. Filed Dec. 9, 1963, Ser. No. 329,342 4 Claims. (Cl.20061.45)

My invention relates to safety impact switches and more particularly toan electric circuit breaker or maker which is to be used on or with anyvehicle, whether a machine of any type or a motor vehicle, or in anysituation where immediate disconnecting or connecting on impact isrequired.

It is an object of my invention to provide a novel and improvedimpact-responsive circuit breaker for disconnecting and deenergizing theelectrical system of a vehicle in the event of a substantial impact orcollision by the vehicle whereby the danger of fire in such an event isminimized.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improvedimpact-responsive circuit breaker for disconnecting and deenergizing, orconnecting and energizing, the electrical system of a vehicle in theevent of a substantial impact or collision, the circuit breaker beinginexpensive to manufacture, small of size and easily mounted upon thevehicle without the provision of special mounting brackets.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improvedimpact-responsive circuit breaker having means to adjust the breaker toautomatically operate at any desired amount of extremely sudden orviolent movement of a vehicle.

Further aims, objects and advantages of this invention will appear froma consideration of the following description and the accompanyingdrawings showing for purely illustrative purposes embodiments of thisinvention. It is to be understood, however, that the description is notto be taken in a limiting sense, the scope of the invention beingdefined in the appended claims.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the circuit breaker of the presentinvention mounted in a preferred manner on a vehicle battery;

FIGURE 2 is an exploded perspective view of the circuit breaker of thepresent invention showing the interrelationship of the variouscomponents of the breaker;

FIGURE 3 is a View in elevation of a section through the circuit breakerof the present invention taken along lines 33 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of the circuit breaker of the presentinvention mounted upon the electrical coil of a motor vehicle.

In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate thecorresponding parts throughout several figures, the impact responsivecircuit breaker is designated generally by numeral 11 and comprises apair of flat elongated arms 12, 13 made from a material having goodelectrical conductivity. Located at one end of the contact arms areenlarged circular portions 14, 15 having respective centrally locatedapertures 16, 17. Disposed upon the circular portions 14, 15 are threesymmetrically located embossed contact points indicated by numeral 18 oncontact arm 12, and numeral 19 on contact arm 13, The contact points 18,19 are embossed to such an oifset relation that the projection of eachcontact point from the flat planar surface into the intervening zonebetween the contact arms is just slightly more than half the thicknessof the insulating spacer disk 21 mounted in the intervening zone betweenthe contact arms 12, 13. Such a degree of offset of the contact points18, 19 allows the contact points to be in circuit closed position whenthe three contact points of contact arm 12 project into the same threeholes,

hereinafter sometimes referred to as the switch-closed detent holes 22a,of the spacer disk 21 as do the three contact points 19 of arm 13.

An index notch 23 is provided in the outer periphery of contact arm 12so as to be selectively aligned with an index notch 24 of contact arm 13to position the contact points 18, 19 in registry through respectiveholes 22a of the spacer disk 21, in which condition an electricalcircuit is established between contact arms 12 and 13. When contactpoints 18 lies in alternate holes of disk 21 from those occupied bycontact point 19, which alternate holes are termed switch open detentholes 22b, no current may flow through the circuit breaker.

Positioned upon the outer face of the circular portions 14, of contactarms 12, 13 are insulator fiber washers 25, 26 having respective centralapertures 27, 28 therethrough. The washers 25, 26 are of generallycircular shape conforming to the diameter of the circular portions 14,15 of the contact arms except that each washer is provided with arelieved peripheral zone, defined for example by a Hat extending along achord of the circle, indicated by numeral 29 on washer and numeral 31 onwasher 26, to provide spaces whereby the index mark 23 may be easilyseen when the circuit breaker is in assembled condition to facilitatealignment of the index marks 23, 24 for circuit closed position. Itshould be noted that contact arm 12 has an index mark on its undersidethat corresponds in a relative position to the index mark 24 of arm 13,and that arm 13 has on its underside an index mark that corresponds in arelative position to index mark 23 of arm 12. This provision allows thecircuit breaker 11 to be mounted in an up-side-down manner while stillmaking the circuit position easily read.

Resiliently urging the circuit breaker components into an intimate closefitting relation are spring washers 32, 33 having a convex exteriorconfiguration and being positioned upon the outer faces of the fiberwashers 25, 26. The spring washers 32, 33 have a flat portion 34, 35 atone point about their peripheries similar to washers 25, 26 in orderthat they may be correspondingly oriented relative to the washers 25, 26to provide easy viewing of the index mark 23.

The circuit breaker 11 of the present invention would normally beassembled as shown in FIGURE 3 wherein the contact arms 12, 13 would bepositioned in flanking or sandwiching relation to spacer disk 21, andone of the washers 25, 26 would be mounted upon the outer face of eachcontact arm. To provide for central core support and insulation for theabove resulting assembly, an insulating tube 36 is inserted in andextended through central apertures of each of the above mentionedcomponents of the assembly. To maintain the complete circuit breakerassembly together and to provide tension to the spring washers 32, 33, abolt 37 extends through the spring washer 32, insulator tube 36 andspring Washer 33, terminating in nut 38. By adjusting the nut 38 uponbolt 37 a compressive force is applied to spring washers 32, 33 therebyproviding proper braking force or shear friction between the variouscomponents of the circuit breaker, and need of which will be laterdescribed.

An inertia member 39, of suitable weight and shape and having a threadedstud 41 projecting therefrom, is mounted upon one end of the elongatedportion of contact arm 12 by extending stud 41 through hole 42 andsecuring it to the under side of arm 12 by suitable nut 43. As seen inFIGURE 2, the stud 41 is set within the inertia member 39 in an offcenter or eccentric manner for a purpose to be *later described.

In FIGURES 1 and 4, alternative methods of mounting the circuit breakerof the present invention upon motor vehicles are shown. In FIGURE 1 thecircuit breaker z) is so mounted as to have contact arm 13 mounted uponterminal lug 44 of the vehicle battery 45, and the battery cable 46 isfixed to contact arm 12 by simply positioning its terminal lug overscrew 41 and replacing nut 43. The second mounting alternative of FIGURE4, shows the circuit breaker mounted upon the ignition coil 47 of thevehicle in a simple manner whereby, if desired, the supply of current tothe electrical distribution system of the engine may be broken. Such aresult is accomplished by supplying the output current of coil 47through wire 48 to contact arm 13 which is mounted suitably uponinsulation block 49. Connected to contact arm 12 by stud 41 and nut 43is an electrical lead 51 that supplies the output coi-l current to theelectrical distributing system (not shown) of the vehicle. It would beof definite advantage to use both methods of mounting the circuitbreaker on all vehicles as shown in FIGURES 1 and 4, whereby upon suddenimpact or collision of the vehicle the danger of fire is greatly reducedif both the battery and the ignition system are taken out of theelectrical circuit. It is common knowledge that even if the battery isdisconnected from the electrical system of a vehicle the engine canstill continue running from power supplied from its own generatingsystem and, therefore, it would be desirable to have a second circuitbreaker within the electrical system to disconnect the ignition circuitat a suitable point such as between the ignition coil 47 and thedistributor (not shown).

When mounting the circuit breaker 11 upon the vehicle it should be sopositioned to allow the inertia member 39 and contact arm 12 to swing inan arc toward the impact point and only travel the shortest distancepossible thereby preventing an unneeded buildup of momentum of inertiamember 39. Since the spacer disk 21 has a plurality of six symmetricallylocated detent holes, 22a and 22b, the optimum amount of travel for massmember 39 and contact arm 12 would be 60 because it is easily seen inFIGURE 2 that if the circuit breaker is in switch closed position, amovement of 60 by contact arm 12 would move contact points 18 fromswitch closed detent holes 22a of spacer disk 21 to switch open detentholes 22b. A movement of more than 60 would give rise to the possibilitythat contact arm 12 would move 120 thereby putting the circuit breakerin switch closed position with contact points 18 again resting in detentholes 2211. As it is not always possible to anticipate the point ofimpact on a vehicle, the switch should be so positioned as to giveoptimum results in the direction of most likely impact, which normallywould be in the front or in the rear of the vehicle. The circuit breakerso positioned will give adequate protection, not only from impacts atthe front and rear of the vehicle, but also on impacts occurring aroundany portion of the periphery of the vehicle. To remove the possibilitythat an impact occurring at a point on the Vehicle and would be in linewith the imaginary axis extending through the centers of hole 42 andaperture 16 of the contact arm 12, member 39 has stud 41 locatedeccentrically thereon so positioned that the center of the mass islocated to one side of this imaginary axis, whereby upon an impact alongthis axis the moment arm of the inertia member 39 will be sufficient tocause inertia member 39 and contact arm 12 to rotate through asufiicient arc to disengage the contact points 18, 19.

An especially important feature of this invention is the means by whichthe circuit breaker may be adjusted to automatically operate at anydegree of sudden or violent movement of the Vehicle. Obviously, it wouldnot be desirable to have the circuit breaker disconnect the electricalsystem of the vehicle every time a sud-den or rapid stop was made due toexisting tratfic conditions. Therefore, it is proposed that bytightening the nut 38 upon bolt 37 a greater degree of pressure will beexerted upon the spring washers 32, 33 thereby resiliently urging theminto greater frictional contact with fiber washers 25, 26 which in turnwill force the contact arms 12 and 13 into greater frictional contactwith spacer disk 21. By tightening up nut 38 it Will easily be seen thatthe tendency of inertia member 39 and contact arm 12 to overcome thefrictional resistance exerted on the enlarged circular portion 14 ofcontact arm 12 and to move contact points 18 from detent holes 22a maybe varied within a wide range of values. Thus the operator of thevehicle may adjust the circuit breaker to operate only at such a time asthe vehicle is stopped with such suddenness as would approximate acollision or impact-'.

While I have particularly shown and described one particular embodimentof the invention, it is distinctly understood that the invention is notlimited thereto but that modifications may be made within the scope ofthe invention and such variations as are covered by the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An impact-responsive automatic circuit breaker for the electricalsystem of a vehicle comprising in combination, parallel first and secondflat contact arms each having at one end an enlarged centrally aperturedcon tact portion, the contact portions being assembled in spacedparallelism and substantial registry with each other, a plurality ofcontact points on said contact portions, an insulating spacer diskpositioned between said contact arms, said spacer disk having aplurality of detent apertures located therein, said detent aperturesadapted to be in registry with said contact points, spring means forresiliently urging said contact points into said detent apertures ofsaid spacer disk, and an inertia member positioned upon the first ofsaid contact arms, said contact arms being adapted to be connected inseries circuit relation with the vehicle electrical system with one ofsaid contact arms fixed against movement relative to the Vehicle andwith said contact points of said first contact arm in contact with thecontact points of said second contact arm when said circuit breaker isin operative position and whereby upon impact of the vehicle theinertial forces on said inertia member produce rotation of the firstcontact arm toward the impact point a predetermined distance therebydisengaging the contact points of said contact arms and moving thecontact points of the first contact arm to an insulative detent positionin said spacer disk.

2. An impact-responsive automatic circuit breaker for the electricalsystem of a vehicle comprising in combination, parallel first and secondflat contact arms each having at one end an enlarged centrally aperturedcontact portion, the contact portions being assembled in spacedparallelism and substantial registry with each other, a plurality ofcontact points placed on said contact portions projecting toward eachother, a circular insulating spacer disk positioned between said contactarms, said spacer disk having a plurality of detent apertures therein,said detent apertures adapted to be in registry with said contactpoints, a circular insulating washer adapted to be positioned upon theouter face of each of said enlarged contact portions of said contactarms, spring means disposed in juxtaposition with each of saidinsulating washers, means for resiliently urging said spring means toseat said contact points in said detent apertures of said spacer disk,and an inertia member positioned upon one of said contact arms, saidcontact arms being adapted to be connected in series circuit relationwith the vehicle electrical system, and means for mounting a portion ofsaid circuit breaker to the vehicle, whereby when said contact points ofsaid first contact arm are in contact with the contact points of secondcontact arm said circuit breaker is in operative position and wherebyupon impact of the vehicle the interial forces on said inertia memberproduce rotation of the first contact arm toward the impact point apredetermined distance thereby disengaging the contact points of saidcontact arms and moving the contact points of the first contact arm toan insulative detent position in said spacer disk.

3. An impact-responsive automatic circuit breaker for the electricalsystem of a vehicle comprising in combination, parallel first and secondflat contact arms each having at one end an enlarged centrally aperturedcontact portion, the contact portions being assembled in spacedparallelism and substantial registry with each other, a plurality ofembossed contact points symmetrically placed on said contact portionsprojecting toward each other, a centrally apertured circular insulatingspacer disk having a thickness greater than the length of said contactpoints and positioned between said contact arms, said spacer disk havinga plurality of detent apertures symmetrically located about saidcentrally located aperture, said detent apertures adapted to be inregistry with said embossed contact points, an insulating washer havinga centrally located aperture therein adapted to be positioned upon theouter face of each of said enlarged contact portions of said contactarms, a pair of convex spring washers disposed in juxtaposition witheach of said insulating washers, means for resiliently urging saidspring washers to seat said contact points in said detent apertures ofsaid spacer disk, and an inertia member positioned upon the outer end ofthe first of said contact arms, said contact arms being adapted to beconnected in series circuit relation with the vehicle electrical systemwith one of said contact arms fixed against movement relative to thevehicle and with said embossed contact points of said first contact armin contact through the detent apertures of said spacer disk with theembossed contact points of said second contact arm when said circuitbreaker is in operative position and whereby upon impact of the vehiclethe inertial forces on said inertia member produce rotation of the firstcontact arm to rotate toward the impact point a predetermined distancethereby disengaging the contact points of said contact arms and movingthe contact points of the first contact arm to an insulative detentposition in said spacer disk.

4. An impact responsive automatic circuit breaker for the electricalsystem of a vehicle comprising, first and second flat contact arms eachhaving at one end a centrally apertured circular contact portion, saidcircular contact portions having a like number of embossed contactpoints thereon spaced symmetrically around the central aperture andprojecting toward each other, said contact arms being in spacedparallelism to one another, the first said contact arm being adapted tosecure an electrical lead of the vehicle electrical system thereto, thesecond said contact arm being adapted to be immovably fixed to anelectrical terminal of said vehicle, an insulating tube member insertedthrough the central aperture in each of said contact arms to positionsaid circular portions in registry, a circular insulating spacer diskbetween the circular contact portions of said contact arms having athickness greater than the length of said embossed contact points andhaving a plurality of detent apertures equal to the sum of contactpoints on said contact arms symmetrically located about the centralportion of said disk and adapted to be in registry with said embossedcontact points, a circular insulating washer positioned upon the outerface of each of said enlarged circular contact portions of said contactarms, a convex spring washer disposed in juxtaposition with each of saidinsulating washers, means for resiliently urging said spring washersinwardly to seat said contact points in said detent apertures of saidspacer disk, and an inertia member fixed upon the outer end of saidfirst contact arm, whereby when said contact points of the first contactarm are in registry through said detent apertures of said spacer diskwith said contact points of the second arm an electrical circuit is madeand whereby upon impact of the vehicle the inertial forces on saidinertia member produce rotation of said first contact arm toward theimpact point thereby disengaging the contact points of the first armfrom the contact points of the second arm and positioning the contactpoints in insulative relation in said spacer disks.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,862,117 6/32Jacobi 20011 2,205,482 6/40 Krieger 200-11 2,806,915 9/57 Fowler20061.45

BERNARD A. GILHEANY, Primary Examiner.

1. AN IMPACT-RESPONSIVE AUTOMATIC CIRCUIT BREAKER FOR THE ELECTRICALSYSTEM OF A VEHICLE COMPRISING IN COMBINATION, PARALLEL FIRST AND SECONDFLAT CONTACT ARMS EACH HAVING AT ONE END AN ENLARGED CENTRALLY APERTUREDCONTACT PORTION, THE CONTACT PORTIONS BEING ASSEMBLED IN SPACEDPARALLELISM AND SUBSTANTIAL REGISTRY WITH EACH OTHER, A PLURALITY OFCONTACT POINTS ON SAID CONTACT PORTIONS, AN INSULATING SPACER DISKPOSITIONED BETWEEN SAID CONTACT ARMS, SAID SPACER DISK HAVING APLURALITY OF DETENT APERTURES LOCATED THEREIN, SAID DETENT APERTURESADAPTED TO BE IN REGISTRY WITH SAID CONTACT POINTS, SPRING MEANS FORRESILIENTLY URGING SAID CONTACT POINTS INTO SAID DETENT APERTURES OFSAID SPACER DISK, AND AN INERTIA MEMBER POSITIONED UPON THE FIRST OFSAID CONTACT ARMS, SAID CONTACT ARMS BEING ADAPTED TO BE CONNECTED INSERIES CIRCUIT RELATION WITH THE VEHICLE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WITH ONE OFSAID CONTACT ARMS FIXED AGAINST MOVEMENT RELATIVE TO THE VEHICLE ANDWITH SAID CONTACT POINTS OF SAID FIRST CONTACT ARM IN CONTACT WITH THEPOINTS OF SAID SECOND CONTACT ARM WHEN SAID CIRCUIT BREAKER IS INOPERATIVE POSITION AND WHEREBY UPON IMPACT OF THE VEHICLE THE INERTIALFORCES ON SAID INERTIA MEMBER PRODUCE ROTATION OF THE FIRST CONTACT ARMTOWARD THE IMPACT POINT A PREDETERMINED DISTANCE THEREBY DISENGAGING THECONTACT POINTS OF SAID CONTACT ARMS AND MOVING THE CONTACT POINTS OF THEFIRST CONTACT ARM TO AN INSULATIVE DETENT POSITION IN SAID SPACER DISK.